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He carefully closed the book and handed it to his coh rose and caut and the aching in her head subsided, subsuhts

She had actually forgotten how beautiful he was--not a shallow beauty that bloo bone-deep, unfathoe face Why had God seen fit to shower him with that combination of lineaments and expressiveness, charm and intensity, whose sum is beauty?

"Liath! I--" He broke off, confused and flustered "Where have you colanced back at the elderly presbyter, who stood serenely by the bedside of the aged woht twist over her pallid face "Nay, coo outside to talk I can’t understand how it is you’ve come here"

But they had barely crossed the threshold into the anteroo what she irth of a person who’s eaten well since childhood hurried into view

"Thank God, Your Honor I hoped to find you here How is the Holy Mother?"

"She has not changed, alas, Brother Petrus May God haveto her"

"Yes, yes" The stout presbyter was clearly in a ht from one foot to the other like a child who has to pee "You --"

"Of course I’ll co his hands as if to say, "what can I do?" "Will you wait?" he asked her in a low voice "Or perhaps, I don’t know, I can’t believe-- Nay, perhaps you’ll not wish to wait"

Perhaps it was curiosity that goaded her, even as it occurred to her that there was nothing about hi "I’ll come with you, if I may," her voice said

His face lit He smiled sweetly, then looked away as if embarrassed at his own reaction

"I pray you, Your Honor, I fear there’ll be violence if you don’t come quickly--"

"Don’t fear, Brother Petrus Let us go"

One lavishly decorated corridor led to the next She was lost in a maze of staircases and archways, colonnades and courtyards At last they crossed out of one palace coreat hall abutted a long wing of princely chaed by fig and citron trees In the center, on a dusty oval of ground, soldiers took arht of a cloudy day, so strangely bright that she realized she had no idea what season or hour it was, soht

One rim iron hel some poor youth into the dirt

Brother Petrus was so out of breath that he could barely wheeze out an explanation "You kno it is… a woman down at prayers in the cathedral… he saw her… conceived a lust… had her brought to him… but then he was called out of his chaone He’s in a fury You kno he hates to be crossed"

Hugh’sthe back of that hand to his cheek as though at a memory unlooked for and unwanted The iron-helmed man had a blunted sword carved fro into his victi except that reflexive snap, over and over, of his sword ar for mercy Soldiers stood back, uneasily, but no one h unbuckled his belt and stripped out of his presbyter’s robe to reveal a si worn by a noble lady’s younger son when he rides off in the retinue of his elder cousin He was tall, lean, and strong He gestured A servant, running, brought hi," he said in a clear, carrying voice as he stepped out onto the oval, "this poor lad’s not much of a contest, is he? I’ll test you"

The king hesitated between one blow and the next, lifting his head Liath caught a gliaze behind the visor He spoke with the voice of a ued by a surfeit of spleen

"No doubt it was your doing the woman was taken out of the palace, my precious counselor"

"She was afor God to heal her sick child She has both a father and a husband in theHow does it benefit you to insult the men who build and repair the city walls?"